Room downgrade

[TheThird]

I’ve two bookings coming up at the Orientbank in Istanbul. One is for a ‘grand deluxe’ room, and the other is for an ‘executive suite’. The latter has been downgraded overnight seemingly – it’s no longer a suite.
When I made the original booking I was in touch with the front office manager from their sister property (Orient Occidental, where I stayed in February), saying I was looking for a property with suites available. He pointed me to the Orientbank, and kindly/proactively offered that if I booked two rooms at the Orientbank (via the Marriott website) he would ensure that one was upgraded to be a suite.
I did just that – booking one points room, and a second ‘grand deluxe’ room – I figured he would upgrade the more expensive room. Instead, he upgraded the points room – amazingly generous, I must say! So the Marriott app showed I had a confirmed reservation for one grand deluxe room, and one executive suite.
When I went into the app today to do the online checkin, the execuite suite booking was no longer showing as an executive suite booking – but rather an executive room. I reached out to the hotel, to ask what had happened – who politely informed me that the guest already in the executive suite I was meant to have decided to extend their stay. So, they have downgraded me. They justified this in part by saying it was a reward room and a discretionary upgrade, ignoring the fact that it was a confirmed upgrade and not a ‘if there’s space we will upgrade you’ upgrade.
I got nowhere with hotel management, and so reached out to Marriott – who told me they would speak to hotel management, the same folks who were already unhelpful. Beyond that Marriott weren’t offering to help with anything else, ie find me an alternative property with a room that fits my requirements, etc – they told me ‘we are just a communication medium between the guest and the hotel’.
I’ve basically given up on this and am resigned to paying an exorbitant last minute rate to stay comfortably somewhere else. What I am actually more peeved about is how useless my (admittedly lowly) gold, but soon to be platinum, status is with Marriott. At least with Hilton they have a callback feature for Diamonds… does Marriott really not have any facility for complaints, apart from the customer service number in America that simply writes an email back to the hotel where there’s an issue?

[meta]

What does confirmation email from Marriott say and do you have anything in writing? If it says Executive Suite or similar then you can invoke room type guarantee otherwise it’s discretionary. Marriott CS is one of the worst and wouldn’t expect them to get involved much.

In any case, I’d cancel the whole stay for both rooms and move elsewhere sending them a short note to state your disappointment. You can tell that hotel is not good just by these pre-arrival interactions. There are plenty Marriotts with suites in Istanbul.

[slidey]

And make sure you leave a 1 star review on tripadvisor and google detailing their deception 🙂

Marriott are worse than useless tho, main reason I stopped using them.

[TheThird]

Thanks both! At least Marriott CS being useless doesn’t sound personal… although it is making me regret jumping both feet in to Bonvoy this year (+ the chase visa). Time to dust off the Hilton Amex (see you soon on the Hilton forum where I’ll be complaining about the breakfast credit).
For what it’s worth, supposedly the rooms have been sorted now, after a lot of aggro and back-and-forth. I had fully intended to move elsewhere, but 1 day before check in the premium was around €2000… and for that money I become a little less principled.

[TGLoyalty]

Hilton diamond is top tier status Marriott gold/Platinum is not. Titanium would be equivalent but I’ve found neither to be of any real help when things go wrong at properties.

JDB might be along soon to say similar but booking a points room and then having a discretionary upgrade applied by the manager isn’t a guarantee but that particular person would be you first and only point of call if it was reversed by the hotel. Their word made the promise and it’s them and their that should deliver. I’m a little baffled why you didn’t go to them directly once the hotel front desk staff couldn’t help rather than Marriott.

Btw if you want confirmed suite upgrades that Marriott can help you with then choose the Night upgrade vouchers as your platinum gift. It might not stop hotels not delivering but far more likely to stick than to go back on a pinky promise.

Glad it’s all sorted though.